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An unusual retrovirus-like sequence identified in human DNA

Susan Payne^3,

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine, 1430 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
² Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, California 92037
and³ Department of Biochemistry, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, U.S.A.

The human genome contains many different types of endogenous proviruses and retrovirus-like elements. An unusual element of this kind has been isolated from human DNA on the basis of its relatedness to the integrase-coding domain of the pol gene of feline leukaemia virus (FeLV). The element, termed Hs5, is related to FeLV only over a short region of 81 nucleotides predicted to encode the carboxyl terminus of the FeLV integrase protein, p46^pol. The region of relatedness between Hs5 and FeLV identifies a short conserved amino acid stretch which is shared among distantly related retroviruses. The conservation of this sequence, its position, and predicted secondary structure suggest that it may represent a conserved substrate binding site or active site of the integrase enzyme. Nucleotide sequence analysis of Hs5 reveals that it is not an intact retrovirus, but contains only the 3' terminus of pol and a defective env gene without apparent long terminal repeat; Hs5 is unusual among human endogenous retrovirus-like elements in this respect.

Present address: Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 2119 Abington Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, U.S.A.

Received 9 October 1989; accepted 22 February 1990.

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